5 Social Media Templates For Making Insights Actionable

Why should anyone care about the metrics you’re reporting on and what actions can be taken based on the findings?

Take this statement for example, “Clorox had approximately 230k mentions in the past 60 days and 75% of those mentions were positive.” What would Clorox be expected to do with this data?

The answer to this question is unlikely to be found within a typical dashboard or a widget. Instead, where I’ve found the most success is within well-defined frameworks and templates.

Let’s take a look at five such frameworks/templates that you can start using right away.

SWOT Analysis

Although the SWOT analysis is one of the most straightforward and recognized frameworks, it is often overlooked as a tool for social media analysis.

When pitching Jaguar for their global account, a savvy market research agency constructed the following SWOT analysis based on their findings from analyzing worldwide social media data.

Strengths

Weaknesses

High levels of trust and perceptions of quality globally and in to a greater degree in Germany

Pricing of services viewed positively within the overall market

Factors related to consumer experiences with Jaguar dealerships for service was significantly more negative in US and UK

Opportunities

Threats

Campaigns targeted to female customers in the UK

Adaptation of experiential service elements from Germany to other markets

Increasing awareness and adoption of independent mechanics for Jaguar service

Higher frequency of electronics issues reported in US

The SWOT analysis enabled the agency to articulate the research in actionable terms, giving Jaguar something more meaningful than volume and sentiment scores while also answering the fundamental, “so what?” question.

To use template for your own projects, login to Google, select “File” then select “Make a Copy”

Blue Ocean Strategy Canvas

A particularly useful framework for strategic planning and guiding innovation, the Blue Ocean Strategy Canvas provides clarity about the factors businesses compete on and what courses can be charted to carve out new, unique growth opportunities.

With iPhone and Android devices dominating the smartphone market, Blackberry is seeking to regain relevance by introducing new smartphones. Let’s take a look at how we could build a strategy canvas to map out the current landscape using insights from social.

This chart maps out each individual aspect that these phones compete on based on the positive sentiment related to each attribute (0-100). Here we see that iPhone and Android devices are particularly weak when it comes to security and messaging capabilities.

Furthermore, perceptions around cost for the iPhone are significantly more negative than for its rivals.

In building the strategy canvas we can define where Blackberry could focus and divest to carve out a more unique position in the market.

From these recommendations we would typically build a new version of the strategy canvas that highlights the new aspects that a brand should compete on, what attributes it should emphasize or de-emphasize, and finally what should be eliminated.

To use template for your own projects, login to Google, select “File” then select “Make a Copy”

3 Variable Positioning Matrix (Bubble Chart)

When it comes to visualizing social media metrics the 3 Variable Matrix, or bubble chart, can be particularly helpful in seeing positioning in a more complete way.

The chart above looks at the positive sentiment for taste and health benefit themes, as well as the overall volume for mentions about each particular diet.

In this chart, we can quickly discern that Slim Fast has low market presence, is perceived moderately for impact on health and negatively for taste. This type of visual can help brands identify what to focus on to improve their position on the canvas.

Adding even more to its utility, this chart lends itself well to visualizing changes over time and should be used both for getting a current read on positioning as well as observing for changes after initiatives have been enacted to improve performance.

To use template for your own projects, login to Google, select “File” then select “Make a Copy”

Cascading Research Framework

The Infegy Cascading Research Framework is a five step method we use to kick-start the social media research process and is defined by moving from a broad to narrow focus.

It proceeds as follows:

Step 1: State your research objective

Step 2: Identify the key constituents of your research

Step 3: Define the attributes relevant to your area of research

Step 4: Map out the performance of each constituent based on the defined attributes

Step 5: Cascade into a new frame to conduct further analysis of distinct attributes Let’s take a look at how we would use this to analyze the intense rivalry between the Xbox One and Playstation 4

By using the scoreboard in this framework we can quickly identify each brand’s strengths and weaknesses. This framework can then be cascaded down into each specific attribute for more narrow discovery into the “why” behind the attribute’s performance.

For example, the “Purchase Intent” attribute would have it’s own structure created, complete with a research prompt, topic (or brand) header and individual attributes below.

Both the high level and subsequent lower levels can be used to inform strategy as to what each brand might focus on and how to then track progress towards public perception of improvement.

To use template for your own projects, login to Google, select “File” then select “Make a Copy”

Conclusion

There’s no doubt that social media data presents an enormous amount of value if leveraged effectively. Unfortunately, the biggest challenge is just that, actually leveraging the data effectively.

These frameworks and social media templates provide methods for taking measurements that might seem vague and without meaning on their own and surrounding them with the necessary context to make them meaningful, actionable and above all answer, “so what?”